Key Moments in American History Historiography Narrative

Key Moments in American History

Historiography Narrative Forms Comedy: bad things working out in the end Tragedy: fatal flaw (original sin: slavery) Irony: unexpected outcome – Not the Alanis Morissette song Teleology: Hegel—thesis, antithesis, synthesis ultimate outcome guided by “Spirit” Material determination: Karl Marx – Base and superstructure

Overall Interpretations Germ theory: “germs” of American society come from Europe (esp. England Germany) Frederick Jackson Turner: frontier thesis American exceptionalism Richard White: middle ground / borderlands Progressives: class conflict; Charles Beard Consensus: ideological commonality; Richard Hofstadter (New) Social History: demographics, non-elite Post-CRM: Black history, Feminism, neo. Marxism, microhistory

Colonial Declension model: falling away (jeremiads) Perry Miller: New England mind, jeremiads as proof of continuity; take words (+ religion) seriously Edmund Morgan: slavery democracy Jack Greene and J. R. Pole: developmental framework: simplification elaboration replication – Anglicization Atlantic World: comparative method linking N+S America, Europe, Africa – Ira Berlin, “From Creoles to Africans”

Revolution Classical Republicanism, ideology: Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood Neo-Progressives: class conflict w/focus lower orders (pre-elite rebellion against authority); Gary Nash, Howard Zinn

Antebellum Charles Sellers: The Market Revolution (neo-Marxist analysis industrialization and impact society) Arthur Schlesinger, The Age of Jackson (neo-progressive: class and ideological conflict; reading FDR into AJ) Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium (reform as middle class control)

Slavery and Reconstruction Plantation School (Booker T. Washington, U. B. Phillips) vs. Stanley Elkins (infantilizing concentration camps) vs. Eugene Genovese: Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made “Birth of a Nation” vs. W. E. B. Du. Bois and Eric Foner

Points of Conflict Industrialization: Robber Barons or Captains of Industry? Populists and Progressives: Reformers or Conservatives? Great Depression: Free market critics of government (Milton Friedman) vs. Critics of capitalism (J. M. Keynes) 1950 s: Conformity or Rebellion? 1960 s: Success or failure of social movements

Key Moments: Colonial (14921763) Spain dominates; English privateers colonies as refueling/bases for attack ( Armada) 1607: Virginia Company of London Jamestown – English Conquistadores, Starving Time (1609 -10), Cpt. John Smith, Powhaten Confederacy, John Rolfe, 1619: House of Burgesses, 1 st slaves 1620: Virginia Company of Plymouth – Pilgrims (separatists), Mayflower Compact, Squanto 1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony – Puritans, Arabella, John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity, ” Roger Williams + “Rogue Island” (1634), Anne Hutchinson (1638)

Virginia (South) vs. Massachusetts (New England) Indentured servants vs. families – Slaves in both (Mass 1 st to legalize) Monoculture (tobacco, rice) vs. mixed agriculture/trade (timber, rum, slaves: Triangle Trade) Anglican vs. Puritan (still Anglican) Individualistic capitalism vs. communitarianism

Middle Colonies 1631: Delaware (Dutch + Swede New York) 1664: New Netherland New York 1682: Pennsylvania (Quaker) Deep South 1663: Carolina (later split N + S) 1733: Georgia (initially no slaves; barrier to Spanish in Florida)

Violence 1642 -1660: English Civil War, Commonwealth, Cromwell Protectorate 1675 -76: King Philip’s War – Metacomet, Praying Indians, bloodiest war US history (%) – compare Pueblo Revolt (1680) 1676: Bacon’s Rebellion – Anti-Indian biracial burn Jamestown (Declaration of the People); “unthinking decision”: slavery democracy 1688: Glorious Revolution in England 1739: Stono Rebellion – South Carolina + racialization + deskilling 1754 -1763: French and Indian War – George Washington, Braddock’s Defeat, Albany Congress, Pontiac’s Rebellion, Proclamation 1763

Revolutionary America: 1764 -1800 Debt taxes: Sugar (’ 64), Stamp (’ 65), Tea (’ 73), etc. – Sons of Liberty, Boston Massacre (P. Revere + S. Adams; J. Adams), Boston Tea Party Coercive/Intolerable Acts 1 st Continental Congress Lexington + Concord War Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation (no executive, unicameral Congress w/equal rep. , no national judiciary, no army, no tax debt) 1786: Shays’ Rebellion 1787: Northwest Ordinance, Constitution (3 branches, bicameral, Senate equal rep, tax + army)

1789: Washington (+ French Revolution) Alexander Hamilton (Federalists) vs. T. Jefferson + J. Madison (Democratic Republicans) 1794: Whiskey Rebellion 1795: Jay Treaty 1798: J. Adams’; Alien + Sedition Acts 1800: “Revolution” Jefferson (we aren’t France, Russia, etc. )

Antebellum 1790 -1830: 2 nd Great Awakening – Temperance, Abolition, “come-outerism, ” utopianism 1803: Louisiana Purchase War of 1812: A. Jackson + New Orleans, status quo antebellum 1820: Missouri Compromise, TJ: “a fire bell in the night” Industrialization: Lowell Girls King Cotton: Eli Whitney’s interchangeable parts (guns) + cotton gin (1793) 1830: Indian Removal + Wars (-1890) – – Cherokee Trail of Tears 1887: Dawes Severalty Act + reservation policy 1832: Tariff of Abominations + Nullification 1840 s: Irish Potato Famine + mass immigration 1846: Mexican-American War 1848: Seneca Falls Convention

Civil War Compromise of 1850: CA, Fugitive Slave Law Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1854: Kansas-Nebraska “Bleeding Kansas” + John Brown 1859: Harper’s Ferry 1860: A. Lincoln elected (split Dems) 1861: Secession + Sumter 1862: Antietam Emancipation Proclamation 1863: Gettysburg + Address 10% Plan vs. Wade-Davis (Ironclad Oath) 1865: Appomattox, Lincoln assassination A. Johnson

Reconstruction Johnson 13 th Amendment + Black Codes (de jure vs. de facto slavery) Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction – – – Civil Rights Act 14 th + 15 th Amendments Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Act Freedman’s Bureau 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases + United States v. Cruikshank Mississippi Plan + Jim Crow South 1895: Booker T. Washington Up from Slavery and the “Atlanta Compromise” – W. E. B. Du. Bois, 1905: Niagara Movement NAACP 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson

Gilded Age 1870: John D. Rockefeller + Standard Oil – Ida Tarbell, The Octopus; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle 1877: Great Railroad Strike 1892: Homestead Strike Panic of 1893 and Bi-metallism – Inflation (debtors) vs. Deflation (creditors) 1896: William Jennings Bryan, former Populist, Democratic National Convention: “Cross of Gold” speech

Foreign Imperialism 1898 Spanish-American War (Mc. Kinley) – Remember the Maine – Filipino-American war (decades; 4, ooo US; 100, 000 Filipinos; free fire zones; concentration camps; “water cure”) 1899 Open Door Notes T. Roosevelt Corollary + Panama Canal Dollar Diplomacy, Moral Diplomacy World War I (US: 1917 -19) W. Wilson, Treaty of Versailles (League of Nations) – Red Cross, NAWSA, NWP, 19 h Amendment

Normalcy “The business of America is business”: turn away Progressive reform, international entanglements (except Latin America), nativism, revival KKK, fundamentalism – Fords, Flappers, and Fanatics – 1925: Scopes Monkey Trial 1929: buying on margin + lots of other, more important things Great Depression H. Hoover (Great Engineer) FDR + New Deal – 1 st 100 Days, Alphabet Soup agencies, Wagner Act, Indian New Deal Dec 7, 1941: Dr. New Deal Dr. War – Stalingrad vs. D-Day; Hiroshima + Nagasaki; Double V vs. Japanese Internment + coming out under fire

Cold War America Marshall Plan, Containment + Truman Doctrine 1950 -3 Korean War – Kim Il Sun, Police Action (UN), Mac. Arthur Controversy, China Iran (’ 53), Guatemala + Vietnam (’ 54), Egypt (’ 56), etc. 1962 Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis – Secret deal: missiles for missiles 1964 Gulf of Tonkin US longest war – 1972: Christmas Bombing fear of leaks plumbers Watergate Nixon resignation

Civil Rights 1954: Brown v. Board ‘ 55: Rosa Parks + Montgomery Bus Boycott – MLK, SCLC ’ 63: Birmingham + March on Washington (“I Have a Dream”) ’ 64 Civil Rights Act (LBJ “Great Society”) ’ 64: Selma + Mississippi Freedom Summer ’ 65 Voting Rights Act + splintering SNCC – Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, Black Panthers; SDS Weather Underground ’ 68: King assassinated, RFK assassinated

Post-Watergate People’s Temple; Gay Liberation; Energy crises, stagflation, + Carter’s cardigan Morning in America (“Mr. Mom” + “Gung Ho”; “Rising Sun”), the Laffer Curve, Reaganomics, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” Iran-Contra: selling missiles to terrorists to get money for other terrorists 1991: Panama + Iraq; “it’s the economy, stupid” 1993: 1 st WTC attack; 1995: Oklahoma City 1994: Gingrich Revolution, Welfare Reform, NAFTA; “Arkansas Project” and the “elves” Ken Starr’s report/witch hunt 1998 impeachment 2000: Florida + “hanging chads” (Diebold, Katharine Harris, felony disenfranchisement) Bush v. Gore